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Tibetan parliament shelves bill to increase MPs

By Lobsang Wangyal

Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile Penpa Tsering, right, and Duputy Speaker Dolma Gyari, during a press conference in Dharamshala, India, on 20 March 2010.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

The Tibetan parliament-in-exile failed to pass a bill which would have increased the number of the Tibetan members of parliament by two due to differences of opinion on how the new plan would be implemented.

The new proposal hopes to increase the number of representatives from North America from one to two, and create a new seat to represent Tibetans from the rest of the world excluding Europe, India, Nepal and Bhutan.

The bill received 26 members voting in favour while five voted against it from a total of 33 members in attendance when it was tabled. To change or add a clause in the Charter of the exile Tibetan parliament, it needs support of 28 members from the total 43 to get two third majority. The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker are not allowed to vote.

Tibetans living in Australia and Taiwan have approached the exile parliament to have their representatives in the exile parliament arguing that there is a sizable Tibetan community in these two countries.

The 43 members in the parliament are elected solely from India, Nepal and Bhutan based on three provinces of Tibet and five religious groups, while two are elected by Tibetans in European countries and one is elected by Tibetans in North America. Tibetans from the rest of the world have not been voting or represented in the exile parliament, although many have been paying tax to the Tibetan government-in-exile, based in Dharamshala, India.

Speaker Penpa Tsering said during a press conference that he had been working to pass the bill for some time. He said although majority of the members supported the idea of having representation of Tibetans from other parts of the world, opinions differ on how they should be elected.

There are ideas such as that Tibetans in other countries could participate in electing members using the same quota procedure as Tibetans in India, Nepal and Bhutan, based on provinces, as opposed to a separate seat. But this may not be a useful method for those outside India, Penpa said.

Penpa stressed that the bill is likely to pass if the issue of increasing the number of seats was raised in the September session of the parliament. However, he also left a gap for speculation saying, without elaborating, that there may be other agendas for some members of the parliament not to support the bill.

A bill asking for an east Asian representative in the parliament had been introduced way back in 1991. But that proposal did not receive support from other members.

The ninth session of the 14th Tibetan Parliament-in-exile concluded its budget session on Saturday. The other highlights of the session include the decision to hold a second Special Meeting in Bylakupee in August, offer a long life puja to the Dalai Lama on 1 September and a grand celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Democracy Day on 2 September.

Copyright © 2010 Tibet Sun

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